{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,24]],"date-time":"2025-12-24T16:58:49Z","timestamp":1766595529018,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":83,"publisher":"University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Canadian Journal of Health History"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Abstract.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>Before incubators became a stable feature of hospital care for infants, North American audiences flocked to see tiny babies on display in incubator exhibits at fairs and carnivals. While the babies themselves were no doubt a draw, incubators also captured imaginations as symbols of scientific progress. Described as mechanical wombs, these medical machines were praised as substitute mothers, offering even better care to these babies than their own parents. Examining the popular media and medical discourse surrounding incubator shows, this paper explores the specific promise of the incubator as an artificial mother, asking why this technological replacement for mothers appeared so appealing to audiences in the first decade of the twentieth century. I argue that public health concerns about inexperienced mothers aligned with a medical construction of the uterus as delicate and faulty, motivating desires for a mechanical replacement for mothers\u2019 bodies and care. Biological mothers were replaced by a new technological system of incubators plus carefully supervised nursing, which together became a kind of artificial mother. This was a system deliberately modelled on chicken incubation, offering a eugenic promise of supervised human reproduction.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3138\/cjhh.707-072024","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,24]],"date-time":"2025-12-24T16:55:22Z","timestamp":1766595322000},"page":"337-361","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Mothering Machines: The Promise of Infant Incubators in the Early Twentieth Century"],"prefix":"10.3138","volume":"42","author":[{"given":"Vivien","family":"Hamilton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1696","reference":[{"key":"r1","unstructured":"Ellis Parker Butler,\n                      The Incubator Baby\n                      (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1906), 5."},{"key":"r2","unstructured":"Butler,\n                      The Incubator Baby\n                      , 14."},{"key":"r3","unstructured":"Butler,\n                      The Incubator Baby\n                      , 17."},{"key":"r4","unstructured":"Murat Halstead,\n                      Pictorial History of the Louisiana Purchase and the World's Fair at St. Louis\n                      (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1904), 275."},{"key":"r5","first-page":"28","volume-title":"Formative Years: Children's Health in the United States, 1880\u20132000","author":"Baker Jeffrey","year":"2002"},{"key":"r6","unstructured":"Jeffrey Baker,\n                      The Machine in the Nursery: Incubator Technology and the Origins of Newborn Intensive Care\n                      (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 86\u2013106."},{"key":"r7","volume-title":"History of the Care and Feeding of the Premature Infant","author":"Cone Thomas","year":"1985"},{"key":"r8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baker, \u201cTechnology in the Nursery\u201d; Bernadine Courtright Barr, \u201cEntertaining and Instructing the Public: John Zahorsky's 1904 Incubator Institute,\u201d\n                      Social History of Medicine\n                      8, no. 1 (1995): 17\u201336, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/shm\/8.1.17; Elizabeth Reedy, \u201cFrom Weakling to Fighter: Changing the Image of Premature Infants,\u201d\n                      Nursing History Review\n                      11 (2003): 109\u201327.","DOI":"10.1891\/1062-8061.11.1.109"},{"key":"r9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Janet Golden,\n                      Babies Made Us Modern: How Infants Brought America into the Twentieth Century\n                      (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 19, 13.","DOI":"10.1017\/9781108227308"},{"issue":"4","key":"r10","first-page":"82","volume":"22","author":"Greene Gina","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journal of Women's History"},{"key":"r11","unstructured":"Baker,\n                      The Machine in the Nursery\n                      , 151."},{"key":"r12","unstructured":"Baker, \u201cTechnology in the Nursery,\u201d 71."},{"issue":"2","key":"r13","first-page":"26","volume":"32","author":"Durbach Nadia","year":"2009","journal-title":"Victorian Review"},{"key":"r14","unstructured":"Reedy, \u201cFrom Weakling to Fighter,\u201d 113."},{"key":"r15","unstructured":"John Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators: A Clinical Study of the Premature Infant with Especial Reference to Incubator Institutions Conducted for Show Purposes\n                      (St. Louis: Courier of Medicine Co., 1905), 19."},{"key":"r16","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 17."},{"key":"r17","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 14."},{"key":"r18","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 13."},{"key":"r19","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 13."},{"key":"r20","unstructured":"Michel Foucault,\n                      The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception\n                      , trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 84."},{"key":"r21","unstructured":"\u201cBaby Incubators: How, by Scientific Nurturing, 35 Per Cent. of Infants Prematurely Born Are Saved,\u201d\n                      Los Angeles Times\n                      , 5 July 1905: I11."},{"key":"r22","unstructured":"Barr, \u201cEntertaining and Instructing the Public,\u201d 21."},{"key":"r23","unstructured":"\u201cExhibit of Infant Incubators at the Pan-American Exhibition,\u201d\n                      Pediatrics\n                      12 (1901): 414\u201319."},{"key":"r24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3998\/mpub.17065","volume-title":"Formative Years: Children's Heath in the United States, 1880\u20132000","author":"Stern Alexandra Minna","year":"2002"},{"key":"r25","volume-title":"Perfect Motherhood: Science and Childrearing in America","author":"Apple Rima","year":"2006"},{"key":"r26","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 38."},{"key":"r27","unstructured":"Reedy, \u201cFrom Weakling to Fighter,\u201d 120\u201321."},{"key":"r28","first-page":"509","volume":"31","author":"Brisbane Arthur","year":"1901","journal-title":"Cosmopolitan"},{"key":"r29","unstructured":"\u201cBaby Incubators at Carnival,\u201d\n                      The Globe\n                      , 19 June 1905, 7."},{"key":"r30","first-page":"417","volume":"121","author":"Adriance Vanderpoel","year":"1901","journal-title":"American Journal of the Medical Sciences"},{"key":"r31","unstructured":"Baker, \u201cTechnology in the Nursery,\u201d 656."},{"key":"r32","unstructured":"Baker,\n                      The Machine in the Nursery\n                      , 71\u201372."},{"key":"r33","unstructured":"Robert Barnes,\n                      A Clinical History of the Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women\n                      (London: John Churchill, 1873), 466."},{"key":"r34","unstructured":"Barnes,\n                      A Clinical History\n                      , 466."},{"key":"r35","unstructured":"Barnes,\n                      A Clinical History\n                      , 465."},{"key":"r36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.1916.02580300007002","volume":"66","author":"Cullen Thomas","year":"1916","journal-title":"Journal of the American Medical Association"},{"key":"r37","unstructured":"\u201cTwelve at the Pan-American Exposition: Tiny Mites of Humanity Receive Most Assiduous Care from Nurses and Physicians,\u201d\n                      Buffalo Morning Express\n                      , 12 June 1901."},{"key":"r38","unstructured":"\u201cBaby Incubators\u201d."},{"key":"r39","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 99."},{"key":"r40","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 33."},{"key":"r41","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 34."},{"key":"r42","unstructured":"Baker,\n                      The Machine in the Nursery\n                      , 79."},{"key":"r43","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 10."},{"key":"r44","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 26\u201327."},{"key":"r45","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 58\u201366."},{"key":"r46","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 116."},{"key":"r47","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 54."},{"key":"r48","first-page":"589","volume":"4","author":"Morse John Lovett","year":"1905","journal-title":"American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children"},{"issue":"5","key":"r49","first-page":"87","volume":"28","author":"Litzenberg Jennings C.","year":"1908","journal-title":"The Northwestern Lancet"},{"key":"r50","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 29."},{"key":"r51","unstructured":"Adriance, \u201cPremature Infants,\u201d 420\u201321."},{"issue":"9","key":"r52","first-page":"293","volume":"54","author":"Birge William","year":"1904","journal-title":"Health"},{"key":"r53","unstructured":"Brisbane, \u201cThe Incubator Baby and Niagara Falls.\u201d"},{"key":"r54","unstructured":"Halstead,\n                      Pictorial History\n                      , 275."},{"key":"r55","volume-title":"Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America","author":"Stern Alexandra Minna","year":"2016","edition":"2"},{"key":"r56","unstructured":"\u201cSome Medical Aspects of the Pan American Exposition: Infant Incubators,\u201d\n                      Buffalo Medical Journal\n                      57, no. 1 (1901): 56."},{"key":"r57","unstructured":"Baker, \u201cTechnology in the Nursery\u201d 67."},{"key":"r58","unstructured":"Des Moines Incubator Company, 6th Annual Catalogue (1899), Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Categories: Incubators, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution."},{"key":"r59","unstructured":"The American Incubator Mfg. Co., Wishbone Poultry Equipment (n.d.). Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Categories: Incubators, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution."},{"key":"r60","unstructured":"Jacob Graves, \u201cIncubator and Artificial Mother,\u201d (n.d.). Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Categories: Incubators, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution."},{"key":"r61","volume-title":"Illustrated Descriptive Circular of the Improved Excelsior Incubator and Brooder","author":"Stahl Geo. H."},{"key":"r62","volume-title":"Annual Catalog: The Famous Old Trusty Incubator & Brooder","author":"M.M. Johnson Co"},{"key":"r63","unstructured":"X-Ray Incubator Co. (1915). Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Categories: Incubators, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution."},{"key":"r64","unstructured":"E.H.G. \u201cBaby Incubators,\u201d\n                      Congregationalist and Christian World\n                      , 31 October 1903, 617."},{"key":"r65","unstructured":"Des Moines Incubator Company, 6th Annual Catalogue."},{"key":"r66","unstructured":"\u201cThe Incubator Babies at Wonderland Park,\u201d\n                      The Minneapolis Journal\n                      , 20 May 1905, 10."},{"key":"r67","unstructured":"Halstead,\n                      Pictorial History\n                      , 275."},{"key":"r68","unstructured":"Zahorsky,\n                      Baby Incubators\n                      , 133."},{"key":"r69","unstructured":"\u201cThe Incubator Babies at Wonderland Park,\u201d 10."},{"key":"r70","unstructured":"Barr, \u201cEntertaining and Instructing the Public,\u201d 34."},{"key":"r71","unstructured":"\u201cIncubator Graduates Hold a Reunion: Forty Healthy Babies Meet at Coney Island,\u201d\n                      New York Times\n                      , 1 August 1904."},{"key":"r72","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jan Sapp,\n                      Genesis: The Evolution of Biology\n                      (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 137.","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780195156195.001.0001"},{"key":"r73","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1353\/vcr.2009.0016","volume":"35","author":"Durbach Nadja","year":"2009","journal-title":"Victorian Review"},{"key":"r74","volume-title":"Illustrated Descriptive Circular of the Improved Excelsior Incubator and Brooder","author":"Stahl Geo. H."},{"key":"r75","unstructured":"Kline,\n                      Building a Better Race\n                      , 8, 12."},{"issue":"5","key":"r76","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"742","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.92.5.742","volume":"92","author":"Stern Alexandra Minna","year":"2002","journal-title":"American Journal of Public Health"},{"key":"r77","unstructured":"Stern, \u201cMaking Better Babies,\u201d 650."},{"key":"r78","unstructured":"Quoted in Daniel Kevles,\n                      In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity\n                      (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 185."},{"key":"r79","unstructured":"Claire Horn,\n                      Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth\n                      (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2023), 28."},{"key":"r80","unstructured":"Aldous Huxley,\n                      Brave New World\n                      (London: Chatto & Windus, 1934), 15."},{"key":"r81","unstructured":"Daniel Beekman,\n                      The Mechanical Baby: A Popular History of the Theory and Practice of Child Raising\n                      , (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Company, 1977), 111."},{"key":"r82","unstructured":"Quoted in Beekman,\n                      The Mechanical Baby\n                      , 110."},{"key":"r83","unstructured":"Julia Grant,\n                      Raising Baby by the Book: The Education of American Mothers\n                      (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 42. See also Golden,\n                      Babies Made Us Modern\n                      , 152\u201353."}],"container-title":["Canadian Journal of Health History"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/utppublishing.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.3138\/cjhh.707-072024","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,24]],"date-time":"2025-12-24T16:56:16Z","timestamp":1766595376000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/utppublishing.com\/doi\/10.3138\/cjhh.707-072024"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]},"references-count":83,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]}},"alternative-id":["10.3138\/cjhh.707-072024"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3138\/cjhh.707-072024","relation":{},"ISSN":["2816-6469","2816-6477"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2816-6469","type":"print"},{"value":"2816-6477","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]}}}